The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Major will prepare graduates for starting new ventures, as well as positions in organizations that propose, analyze, and implement entrepreneurial growth strategies. Through a flexible series of courses that emphasize both conceptual and hands-on/experiential learning, students will develop knowledge and skills that will provide them with a platform to start, run, and grow enterprises. Career options for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Majors include:
- Entrepreneur or business owner
- Business or economic development
- Corporate innovation
- New product development
- Management consulting
- Sales agent (financial services, insurance, real estate, etc.)
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The objective of providing a foundational education in entrepreneurship and innovation at the undergraduate level cannot be realized without appropriate curricula content, effective teaching, and ultimately, learning. Within the undergraduate entrepreneurship and innovation major, we subscribe to the following learning goals for each of our undergraduate students:
- Graduates will be able to manage and evaluate organizational systems focused on the following entrepreneurial outcomes.
- Identify organizational tasks, roles, and responsibilities of managing entrepreneurial ventures.
- Designate the interrelationships between functional areas of entrepreneurial ventures.
- Describe the interrelationships between resources, organizational structure, and strategies utilized to create and grow entrepreneurial ventures.
- Demonstrate an understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena across organizational contexts, including start-ups, small and medium sized enterprises, family businesses, and corporate ventures.
- Prescribe effective practices in identifying and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Identify alternative ways to market a new product or service that contribute to the growth of an entrepreneurial venture.
- Assess entrepreneurial opportunities using financial methods.
- Graduates will be able to think critically and solve problems in entrepreneurial ventures.
- Graduates will be able to deal with the dynamics of individuals and teams within organizations and to motivate, lead, and inspire employees toward achieving organizational goals.
- Graduates will be able to use computer and information technology in solving problems and perform functions commonly seen in managing businesses and other organizations.
- Graduates will be able to effectively communicate recommendations to management and other constituencies, orally and in writing.
- Graduates will have knowledge of business disciplines: accounting, finance, management, management information systems, and marketing.
